Neil Harwood is taking on the Tour Divide in 2013Brave fundraiser Neil Harwood has chosen to participate in the Tour Divide in Spring/Summer 2013 to raise awareness and hopefully funds to enable Dyslexia Action to help more individuals with dyslexia and literacy difficulties.
What is the Tour Divide?
The Tour Divide is a 2745 race from Banff in Canada to Antelope Wells in New Mexico - at the Mexican border along the continental divide.
The route will travel through the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, The United States of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico with a 200,000 feet of vertical assent (equivalent to summiting Mount Everest from sea-level 7 times). The race covers a distance of 2745 miles along the great divide mountain bike route with the majority of the route being off road – in addition - competitors have to carry all the equipment needed to survive. All in all, this makes The Tour Divide the toughest race on earth. The Race is still very much an underground race and has been completed by less than 200 people. For more information – you may like to visit
http://tourdivide.org/
Who is Neil Harwood?
"My Name is Neil Harwood, I am a Darwen lad born and bred. I’m employed for East Lancs Medical Service as a Systems and IT Manager and have been for the past 4 years. The majority of my working life I have been involved in IT and Systems and studied at Blackburn college in Telecommunications."
How did you get into cycling?
"I have always had a great interest in Cycling/Mountain biking. I remember my first attempts at riding my bike without stabilisers (my mum said I was about 3 years old) when my mum sat me on my bike at the top of what felt like a big grassy mountain and gave a little push and off I went down the mountain side to where my dad was waiting to catch me. Now when looking back at the grassy mountain it is only about 4 foot long and not very steep at all.
After that I was hooked but I guess my first experience of long distance bike riding was when I was around 9yr old and my brother decided it would be a good idea to meet my dad after work. A combination of me being 9yr old, not very good at directions, not knowing how far a mile was, an old very heavy mountain bike meant it must have took us hours and when we got there, there was no room in the van so we had to cycle back!
I've taken part in races since then and started to train harder, waiting for Birthdays, Christmases and saving form my paper round to fund new parts for my bike. Despite my bike being broken more that it was fixed I still managed top 10 in most races and a couple of 3rds, I also lead a couple or races until my bike broke and had to retire. Once I got a bit older I took a couple of years out to concentrate on my studies."
Why 2013?
"In 2005 for some reason I decided to get my bike out and give it a clean, and thought I would search on the internet for a club or someone to ride with, I found a local club and started to join them on their rides. This soon was not enough, I needed more and I started to look around for some races. I found the Merida MTB Marathon, then I needed more so I looked for more race and found the Trans Wales. The Trans Wales it a 7 day stage race covering around 500k in 7 days and finished a respectable 16th overall. My passion for endurance racing is getting stronger and stronger. I currently race marathon events such as the Trans Wales, CRC MTB marathons, and Kielder 100. So the Tour Divide is the next big challenge for me to attempt."
How can we keep up with your preparation until then?
"You can follow Me on Facebook and on Twitter or you can read my blog."